Why Hall of Names?

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Over 200+ active installations worldwide

HALL of NAMES

The Armorial History

In 1999, we released our database of Surname Histories matched with a Coat of Arms called an “Armorial History” these Armorial Histories show the Coat of Arms ‘supported’ on either side by origin specific border graphics. All the graphics are printed by your ink-jet or color laser printer… use any paper you want!!

Features and Benefits

Each Armorial history includes:

The Coat of Arms and Family Crest

Origin specific side graphics that compliment the Coat of Arms

The place of origin for the surname

Variations in spelling

Early movement of the surname throughout the Middle Ages

Famous and infamous people from all periods of history, titles such as Knight, Baron, Earl, and Duke held by family members

More Features and Benefits

Coats of Arms countless product possibilities

Our most inspirational product

HALL of NAMES

Family Crests and Coats of Arms

Extensive research of the ancient armorials has resulted in our collection of over 1,000,000 Family Coat of Arms in our computer from most European nationalities. Colours are vibrant and true to ancient heraldic standards.

Each Coat of Arms can be automatically sized to the most popular size needed for these products and many more. Need the image reversed? Not a problem, our software automatically does that for you.

Whatever you want to do including bundle together Coffee Mugs and a T-shirt to sell as a package, why not come up with something new like a plate. No problem, we support the most current dye sublimation technology devices.

Many products have templates that allow for the easiest and most efficient use of paper and ink.

Our support web site has tutorials for many of our COA products with recommended third party hardware and supplies.

Features and Benefits

The Surname History our first traditional product

est. 1980 on a dot matrix printer

HALL of NAMES

The Surname History

These are a go to for Hall of Names Licensee’s and customers a like, each history gives information about the name from the earliest records we can find, some even dating back as far as 1,100 years ago.

Ever since the public premiere of our Parchment Scrolls at the Toronto Eaton’s Centre store at Christmas in 1987 with the introduction of only 35,000 surname histories, research on more and more surnames has been our primary goal. We quickly realized that despite the $36,000 in sales in the 11 days before Christmas from our 40 square foot display, we still had to increase the number of surnames available.

Features and Benefits

Each surname history includes:

The place of origin for the surname

Variations in spelling

Early movement of the surname throughout the Middle Ages

Famous and infamous people from all periods of history, titles such as Knight, Baron, Earl, and Duke held by family members

More Features and Benefits

First Names

How about 50,000 first name histories to round out the appeal of your presentation?

HALL of NAMES

First Name Histories

No, we don’t have all first names, but yes we have the most popular ones that have been researched, there are those where this product shines with its full ethnic base that includes Arab, Greek, Native American and many more nationalities that were not feudal states at any time in history. This unique software is built right into our system, so no extra hardware is needed.

This product is admittedly more of a novelty item, but is a great add-on product for people who have already bought one of our histories and for those people that have surnames that aren’t in our database. This first name base is the largest in the world and by itself is a wonderful product!

The database covers a wide ethnic background of personal names from North American Indian to Arabic. The histories are shorter than our Surname scrolls, but display nicely on many pre-printed stock 8 ½ x 11 or A4 paper. Unique variants can be added right away so the working size of the database of available names is limitless.

Note – this was a separate license in the past that sold for $1,995 but now we are including this database with every license at no extra cost.

Features and Benefits

Irish Sept Histories our first full color product

the first high quality Armorial

HALL of NAMES

Irish Sept Histories

Our release of 24,000 Irish Sept Histories complete with a full color rendition of the Coat of Arms was the beginning of a completely new format for Hall of Names. The Irish Sept Histories included the Surname History and Coat of Arms in one attractive product. The Irish Sept Histories where the breakthrough product that lead to our now most popular product the Armorial Histories.

ARE THE IRISH SEPT HISTORIES DIFFERENT?

Yes our Irish Sept Histories are displayed differently to the rest of the Coats of Arms available, if a Sept Coat of Arms is available (see sample) then this will be displayed, the mantle that supports these is different our helmet design is also different, the supporting banners are not the same and the history contains information about the movement with in Ireland making this our most popular item with Irish visitors to your location.

If there is no Sept Coat of Arms but an Irish Origin is available our software will pull from our database of Family Coats of Arms as used in the Armorial Histories so your customer can still benefit from the Irish Sept Histories content. The Irish Sept Histories are available to print in 11″ x 17″ and A3, use our Custom Pre-printable Seals direct from the system or add a gold seal with ribbon as per sample for a flourish, all Irish Sept Histories have a specific certificate number ensuring authenticity.

Customize your Irish Sept Histories with our full customizable footer that allows you to put your toll free number, email address or web site to make sure future orders come right to you.

Features and Benefits

Scottish Clans

We introduced our collection of 35,000 Scottish Clan Histories to Hall of Names in 1998 a very popular product with people that only want Scottish Histories.

HALL of NAMES

WHY SCOTTISH CLAN HISTORIES

These highly accurate and enjoyable histories show the full color rendition of the Clan’s or family traditional crest, in addition the Scottish Clan History also includes a summary of the Clans’ early origins, pre-anglicised name and War Cry as well as the detail of the Coats of Arms at the bottom. Each Scottish Clan History bears a gold seal and a specific certificate number ensuring authenticity.

Printer either through Hall of Names on 11″x17″ or A3 paper, the software is that easy to use, you can even include your custom footer with Name, Toll Free Number, email or website address for repeat customers.

Features and Benefits

What our licensees say

We have always been thrilled with our experience as a licensee of Swyrich! They have always provided outstanding customer service to us and has tirelessly, an and patiently answered all of the endless questions we had upon start up.

Privacy Policy

About Us

Researching Surnames since 1988

Hall of Names™ is a wholly owned software licensing package developed by Swyrich Corporation. Dave Richardson, co-founder of Hall of Names in 1988, continues with Swyrich Corporation to coordinate research, product development and new markets. Since 1990, Swyrich Corporation has called Kingston, Ontario its home and has been located at 830 Development Drive since 1995.

The Hall of Names has been bringing to light the history of surnames from around the world since 1971. In that year, David Richardson and his family began the laborious task of manually cataloguing their research about different surnames. The result of that work was a display of pre-printed surname histories of about 144 Scottish families and their Septs in 1972. Today, the extensive library of surname histories and related products that has grown from this initial research is available to consumers in the form of high-quality computer generated parchment scrolls. Our products can be purchased from our licensed operators, by mail from our head office in Kingston, Ontario.

Ever since our early beginnings we have been tirelessly researching the world’s most popular surnames. Our research has expanded rapidly, and now includes the rest of the British Isles and Ireland, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Poland, Russia, the Ukraine, with more nationalities available soon. By 1986, we had amassed histories for over 25,000 surnames. Accurate texts and registers from all over the world have been collected to make up the source library, and professional historians research from these sources at our Canadian Headquarters in Kingston, Ontario. To effectively handle such a large holding of surnames, we developed the world’s first computerized on-site retrieval system in 1987. Each history could then be printed on parchment within minutes, using a dot matrix or daisy-wheel printer. Retrieval was in seconds, but in those days the fastest printers only printed at 45 characters per second (CPS). We have continually upgraded our operating system, which is now Windows-based and quite easy to use.

The system supports just about any kind of printer, offering color and an unlimited selection of fonts! Today, our Hall of Names licensees have access to a full range of Swyrich-produced products, including Surname histories, Armorial histories, Scottish Clan Histories, First Name Scrolls, and on-site Coats of Arms. The products are packaged in our Hall of Names software, now a two-CD package. Our licensees offer our exclusive products from a variety of locations. In Britain, our Parchment Scroll histories have been sold in Westminster Abbey, Sherwood Forest, The British Royal Museum, Harrods, Debenhams, Selfridges, Blarney Woolen Mills, Jenner’s, York Minister Cathedral and fifty or so other prestigious locations.

In North America, we have had licensed outlets marketing our products at such locations as DisneyWorld, Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Notre Dame University, The Queen Mary, Upper Canada Village and many more. Department stores have had our displays including: Sears Roebuck, Sears Canada, Eaton’s, The Bay, and many more. Our clients and patrons include: Prime Ministers, Cabinet Ministers, Clan Societies, judges, archbishops, professionals, entertainers and many leading historians and genealogists. Authenticity is our namesake with research continuing all the time. We feel we offer the largest, most accurate, and most appealing line of products of this kind. Our graphic images are carefully researched and crafted, and the quality and authenticity of our histories is guaranteed. We have a commitment to quality and service that our licensees appreciate!

11 x 17 or A3 Paper

Whichever you choose, 11x17 or A3, the product prints seamlessly allowing you to source paper locally and not fight with regional print drivers.

We suggest you use a paper called AstroParch, (that's what we use) but at times people have found that local suppliers cannot source this product.

The goal here is to source an "aged look" paper at a reasonable price that comfortably prints images clearly from an ink jet printer. We do not recommend photo quality paper as the printer typically takes too long to print the product.

Continuing Research

Only accurate texts and registers from all over the world have been collected to make up the source library. Now, professional historians, many accredited in their field, research from these sources at our Canadian headquarters in Kingston, Ontario.

Our clients and patrons include: Prime Ministers, Cabinet Ministers, Clan Societies, judges, archbishops, professionals, entertainers and many leading historians and genealogists authenticity is our namesake with research continuing all the time.

Our research is done at our head office in Canada and focuses on the major ethnic backgrounds, more nationalities are covered as our database of surnames continues to expand.

What have we done lately?

By example, during 2016, we:

Added 40,837 and edited 11,453 Notables

Added 9,784 and edited 6,355 Settlers

Added and edited 68,502 histories (different dbase than the 2 above)

Released SP1 to all licensees (all updates are free of charge)

Bibliography

Yet another exclusive feature with Hall of Names, to our knowledge no one else offers their research information. This is what helps show our and your customers the authenticity of the research done here in Canada. Because the research is so unique and specialized, people often ask “Where did you get all this stuff?” The bibliography on the backside hints at the depth of research involved with every product we sell.

Many people believe is the strongest benefit of our product. Simply stated, our bibliography is a list of the credible reference materials used in the histories and is an excellent source for customers to do more research.

Is everything listed?

No! Not all the references are listed that would take many, many pages to properly show, but as we have always explained to our customers, these are some of the more important sources we use. This bibliography is included in our software, we urge all our licensees to print all their Tabloid, 11×17 and A3 paper with our bibliography on the reverse as we want our customers to feel confident in our research.

We are the only company providing such information, perhaps because our histories are so authentic.

Watermark

Fully Customizable

This product typically show a country specific watermark for the origin of any given name

By example: Welsh dragon for Welsh names; Map of Scotland or the Scottish Lion for Scottish names and so on.

However, you may use your own custom watermark(s) for say, your site’s location or historic site.

Customers can even choose their own watermark! For example, if your customer is from another country that just happens to be visiting the area, put their country’s watermark on their print.

Regional Customization

Customize to your local area

Customers typically prefer to see local notables, settlers and content in their Armorial product. Thanks to the fact that we have so much data in our dbase, you can customize your print to include local content first, followed by other country’s.

One of the best examples is our extensive Australian dbase with over 60,000 settlers making each print unique to them.

Gold Embossed Seal

We typically add an imprinted gold seal and ribbon to this product. This feature adds a personal touch to the products and “seals” the authenticity.

No time to put a seal on? Add you own custom image or use one of our stock images provided in our software.

Customized Footer

Repeat orders are essential to good sales, want your own toll-free number, email address or web site included at the bottom of each product printed?

No problem, this has that ability built in option that takes seconds to set up, we even prompt you upon your first installation.